Across the Bridge
by Hielo y Sombra
Summary: Bridges connect things. Islands, different sides of rivers, worlds, and dimensions. And when someone in one dimension becomes desperate, he'll drop someone into another universe altogether to protect her. OC. 'T' for cursing, violence, etc.


**Chapter 1 – Crossing the Bridge**

Violet hair whipped around the teen's face as she raced at speeds beyond the human eye toward the fire that was blazing above the town. Two extremely large wolves, one brown with ice-blue eyes, the other a golden color with darker blue eyes, ran at her heels. Her eyes scanned the crowds ahead of her. Her left eye, a neon shade of pink that was quickly turning crimson with the exertion, was contrasted sharply by the amber of her right eye, which was also well on its way to crimson.

Up there! one of the wolves cried in her mind. She followed its gaze and gasped.

Standing up on the tower were three figures, each one perfectly visible to her despite the distance and smoke. The tallest figure had long black hair in dreadlocks, while the shortest was the lone female of the group. Her blonde hair was slicked back, though two strands stuck up like antennae.

And then there was the third figure. The male was obviously younger than the other two, despite being taller than the woman. Slate-colored hair raggedly fell over one cobalt eye, while the other revealed terror. He stood on the edge, looking ahead of him at the other two fearfully.

"Zexion!" the girl on the ground screamed, realizing that the teen above was on his own against the other two. The boy looked down to where she was, before looking back at the man and woman again. His face drew in, like he was about to do something he didn't want to, and he jumped.

The girl and the two wolves at her side ran forward, with the obvious hope of catching him. Around the golden wolf, flashes of darkness started to appear, and he shot forward, barely managing to catch the youth on his back. A pained cry escaped the boy's lips as the wolf did so, but moments later, the girl and the second wolf arrived on the scene.

A man stepped out of the shadows, silver-white hair flying around wildly in the heat-propelled winds that the fire in the tower provided. Amber eyes looked down on the teens and wolves coldly. "You would do well to hand him over now," he stated. The girl hissed at him, revealing fangs in place of her canines.

"Go burn in hell, Xemnas!" she ordered. She lifted the boy onto the brown wolf's back and took off, the wolves on her heels again.

We've got to find someplace safe, the golden wolf said. The girl nodded.

"I've got just the place in mind, Cloud. But I'll need to channel your darkness to get there," she told him. The wolf looked unhappy about that, but chose not to comment. Once they were hidden away in an alley, the girl rested her hand on Cloud's large head and then held the other up in front of her. A swirling portal of darkness appeared.

Is it safe to take him through there? the brown wolf asked, turning his head as if to gesture to the limp figure on his back. The girl grimaced.

"We don't have a choice," she said simply. Without another word, she stepped into the dark corridor, and the wolves followed.

The world they stepped out onto was definitely much lighter. However, they were not very welcome here at all.

A man with dark hair stepped out of the castle in front of them and summoned a key-shaped weapon. His face betrayed the anger the girl was certain he felt. "What business have you here?" he called across the way to them. The girl pulled the boy off of the brown wolf's back.

"Please, Master Eraqus, my friend needs help!" she cried. The man lowered his weapon and started along the bridge toward them, stopping halfway.

"Have your friends revert to their human forms, or I'll not come any closer," he ordered. The girl looked between the two. The golden wolf immediately did so, revealing a blue-eyed man with spiky blonde hair. The other wolf was less inclined to do so.

"Leon, please," the girl whispered. He growled, then did as his companion had, turning into a man with relatively long brown hair.

Eraqus closed the distance between them quickly, and after examining the teen for a few minutes, he sighed. "There's nothing I can do at this point. There is a poison in his body that I cannot remove. I could heal his ribs, but what would be the point? He would die, regardless, as the poison is beyond the hope of anything you could do for him. Perhaps he'll pass easier this way," he informed her. She clenched her fists, but before she could close her eyes to force back the tears that were forming, Eraqus took her chin in his hand, forcing her to look at him.

Brief surprise flashed in his face before anger and fear dominated him and he retreated from her, quickly. She knew the reason. Her eyes were closer to crimson now than they had been even when trying to get to her friend.

And as anger and her own darkness flared up inside of her, that crimson became even more pronounced.

Eraqus' weapon began to glow very faintly with light, but it was knocked out of his hand before he could attack with it. The last thing he remembered was the feeling of something cutting through his neck as the girl clamped her jaws down on him.

"Nik…"

The girl let Eraqus' body fall to the ground and turned. Her eyes had returned to their normal pink and amber, but blood dripped down her chin. Supported by Leon, only barely conscious, was the boy they had tried so hard to rescue. The girl ran back to his side.

"Why?" she demanded. "Zexion, why didn't you tell us about the poison?"

He shook his head. "I didn't want to worry you. Besides… You promised you'd never turn me, the day you found me, my first day as an orphan. If I'd told you while there was still time… would you have kept that promise?" he asked. The girl let a single tear fall before looking away.

"Zexion…" she whispered.

"You're a bit of a fool, girl," a sinister voice sneered. A dark corridor deposited the man earlier identified as Xemnas before the small group. Behind him, two more corridors deposited the blonde woman and the man with dreadlocks from earlier. "In killing Master Eraqus, you've opened this world to the rest of us."

Zexion, with some difficulty, stood and held out a hand behind him. "And so your goal of plunging the worlds into darkness is complete… But I won't let you take Nikoní. She's special," he said. Another corridor, this one made of light, appeared behind their group. "Nikoní, go… and don't look back," he ordered.

The violet-haired girl looked between Zexion and Xemnas, before Cloud and Leon exchanged a glance.

"Sorry," Cloud muttered, grabbing Nikoní's arms and pushing her toward Leon. A moment later, he erupted into a massive golden wolf once more. Leon, in turn, took Nikoní and forced her toward Zexion before doing the same.

The two wolves lunged forward to engage Xemnas and the other two, but Nikoní and Zexion stood before each other, in front of Zexion's portal.

"Please, don't do this," Nikoní begged him. The other teen closed his eyes and shook his head.

"I'm sorry. I won't let him have you," he told her. A moment later, he pushed her backwards, into the portal he had formed. Once she disappeared within it, the light disappeared, and he turned to find himself across from the blonde woman again.

"Aww, how precious," the woman taunted. Zexion simply stood there. "And once we've taken care of the four of you, we'll figure out just where you sent her. And then we'll take care of her too!"

As the woman lunged for his throat, Zexion held back a smirk.

_Oh no you won't. Not unless you know how to bring Xigbar or Braig back to life. Because they're the only ones aside from me who have any idea how to cross the border between universes._

* * *

"Hey, I think she's coming around!"

A quiet groan seconded that comment.

"Nice and slow now, don't push yourself," another voice said.

Amber and pink eyes shot open and the girl's body stiffened.

"Hey, didn't I say slow?" the man teased. The girl's violet hair fell into her face for a moment, only to be brushed away as she finally tore her eyes from the man to look around. Three teens and another man stood nearby, one of them very familiar to her, just like the man at her side.

"What… the hell…?" she muttered, staring at the second man as if he had grown a second head. She shot a second glance at the teens and was unsurprised that she knew them too.

"Sora, Riku, Kairi," she whispered. Then she looked up at the second man. "Axel." Her eyes found the first man's face again. "Zexion…"

"Um… Should I be concerned that she knows all of our names?" Sora asked. The girl looked around again, recognizing where they were as well.

"Radiant Garden…" she muttered.

"Hey, you guys okay? Huh? Who's that?" a girl's voice reached them.

Four more people walked over, two male, two female. One of the girls wore a pink dress and had her brown hair in a braid, while the other's short black hair matched her black and tan clothing. She was the one who had spoken.

The two men, it seemed, were as familiar as the five people around the girl.

"Leon, Cloud?" she asked. Then she frowned. She didn't recognize the two women… Where had they come from?

"And why does she know our names?" Cloud added. The girl pulled her knees up to her chest and sat her head down on them as she thought. This was strange… None of them seemed to remember her… And Radiant Garden seemed to be more light than she had left it… Had Zexion sent her back in time?

No, that was impossible. He didn't have the power to do that.

A parallel universe then? It would explain the familiar faces while also contributing to the lack of familiarity. But could he have actually…?

The answer, the girl realized, was yes. Yes, Zexion could. And had, apparently. And now she was stuck here with painfully familiar faces that hurt to even think about, let alone look at.

What if Neku and Joseph were here too? And Myde? Dulor? Roxas? Xion?

Naminé?

Or worse… What if Ansem were here?

That would be an awful, horrible breakdown.

"Hey!"

The girl hissed and pushed the black-clad girl away from her as she ran off to the side. The girl she had pushed cried out in pain, clutching her chest. "Ah, damn… You hit harder than I thought you would…" she muttered. The brunette woman ran to her side, casting a healing spell as she did. Leon's glare was very well planted on her now, while Cloud seemed… worried?

"You'd better watch that darkness. It'll get out of hand if you don't," he warned. The girl turned to glare at him. How dare he scold her for using darkness!? She was a vampire, gods-damn…

Oh.

All of her anger fizzled away as she stopped and sniffed a few times.

Everyone here was human.

She sighed and tucked herself into a crevice in the rock as mild depression washed over her.

"Uh… Cloud, what did we just witness?" Sora asked. Everyone, aside from Riku and Cloud, seemed extremely confused. Zexion recovered the fastest, followed by Leon, the woman in pink, Axel, Kairi, Sora, and the girl in black. Axel crossed his arms.

"I'm not sure I want to know what caused you to go from extremely angry to half-depressed so fast, but I don't think it's healthy either," he said. The girl clenched her jaw shut and dropped her head into her arms, which rested atop her knees.

A few moments later, her body started shaking, and the woman in pink sighed as she walked over to the girl. "Hey, it's alright," she said softly. The girl shook her head.

"No. No it isn't! They're dead or dark or being hunted down and I'm here! I can't help them here!" she cried, her words becoming more and more hysterical as she continued. "And I'm never gonna forget, because I can't! I can't forget and I can't fall into darkness and I can't die because I repel fire!"

The group around her started exchanging glances.

"Um… There's more than one way to die, you know," Leon said slowly. The girl raised her head and hissed at him.

"Not for a vampire!" she spat. "Our only weakness is fire and it won't touch me! I can't die!" she finished, screaming. Then she took off running, though where to, none of them had any idea, as she was running too fast for any of them to see. Cloud and Riku both looked sick, however.

"Hey, you two okay?" Sora asked. Riku looked over at Cloud.

"Let's… try to avoid that in the future," the silver-haired teen said. Cloud nodded.

"Yeah… That… was not fun," he agreed. Zexion nodded.

"I wasn't as close, but even I felt that," he said. Then he crossed his arms. "But… We never even figured out her name, let alone where she came from or why she seems to know us. All we've learned is that she's a vampire, which means she's probably on the wrong world."

Riku sighed. "We're not going to learn anything if we just stand around here," he stated. The woman in pink crossed her arms.

"But what if she attacks us? She was obviously holding back when she hit Yuffie, either that or she wasn't trying to hit her that hard, but imagine the damage she could do," she said. Yuffie sighed.

"I think she was just trying to get me out of her face, like Aerith said. She's probably not used to being around humans," she added.

Leon frowned. "Let's go after her. We might be able to get some answers, and… well, vampires drink blood. I don't want her to kill anyone in town," he decided. Sora and the others nodded.

Zexion frowned. "Let's split up, groups of three. We'll have a better chance of finding her like that," he said. Axel nodded.

"Alright," he agreed. Sora looked at Kairi and Riku for a moment.

"Well, I guess that make the three of us a group," he stated. Aerith looked over at Leon and Cloud.

"I'd like to go with the two of you. Goodness knows neither of you will heal yourselves regularly," she decided. Yuffie grinned at Axel.

"Alright, looks like I'm going with you," she said. The redhead scratched the back of his head.

"Looks like it," he agreed. "Alright, come on."

* * *

**_Um, okay. This is kinda my first Kingdom Hearts story, and... Well, whatever. Drop me a line if you wanna read more, because this is all I have at the moment and I don't want to fight with past tense if no-one's going to read it. (If you've read one of my Tales of the Abyss stories, you'll know that I write in the present tense.)_**


End file.
